The Entertainment of Horror and Its Implication on Society
An elaboration on why do we enjoy scary movies from the eyes of psychological studies.
Yesterday on 31st October, at least in America, Europe, and East Asia celebrate the day of Halloween — the day where ‘supposedly’ the ghosts of the dead walked on the earth once more. Due to its supernatural background, Halloween is often associated with the horror genre that usually dwells in striking fear and entertainment at the same time for our brain.
Now for our main question here — why would someone enjoy a genre where their primary aims are to frighten, shock, horrify using variables of an instrument such as structured pain, blood, gore, and the pressure of anxiety? G. Neil Martin in 2019 published his research about our enjoyment of horror and try to give some insight into our unconscious reasoning behind it.
Seeking For Sensation and Thrill
We start off with something that I think some of us can relate to. One of the reasons we (or at least I) watch horror movies, videos, or any form of horror creation is because I love the idea of placing myself in the story of that horror background itself thus creating a sense of adventure—a thrill for me to explore.
A negative stimulus (such as a horror film) might, therefore, be interpreted by a person high in sensation seeking as being very positive; but a person low in sensation-seeking would find the stimulus unpleasant. High sensation-seeking individuals would also be less vulnerable to the experience of threat in these films
Just as Martin said, those who love to be immersed and dive deep into the horror scene would love the sensation that horror movies provide to us. Something that is quite common for sure, next!
Low Empathy and Numb To Fearfulness
Empathy and horror movies — one of the reasons why some people show distaste in horror movies is because they have a fear that what they just watch might actually appear in the real-life, an effect of unconsciously empathizing too deep with the story. But for those who have low empathy, this will never be the case no matter how graphic the horror is.
Based on a 1989 research by Mundorf, it was shown that people with low empathy and low fearfulness enjoy graphic horror and are less likely to enjoy a happy ending. This is why they are associated with gore-watchers as Martin displays it in his research.
— gore watchers will be low in empathy and fearfulness but will be high in adventure-seeking and will seek out high arousal.
— gore watchers are curious about the ways people are killed, are vindictive (they require satisfaction that characters receive their just desserts), and are attracted to blood and guts (gore) in film.
Sound like a psychopath but I think this is due to their ability in drawing a clear line between reality and fantasy—so it won’t affect them that much in real life.
The Need for Affect
“What is there to be affected by such a grim creation?” Well in Martin’s definition, by affect he meant:
— assumption that we are motivated to seek interesting or positive experiences and avoid unpleasant ones.
Despite horror movies serving us with assumedly ‘unpleasant’ experiences, but I do believe it can fill someone with a sense of enjoyment and gratifying experience; their need for affect is satisfied by watching sad films. Just like someone who love sad and sorrowful ballad song despite definitely won’t enjoy being in such a situation — the same situation might be applied to horror where—same as before — they see the ghost/monster/creature/perpetrator as a sort of entertainment instrument.
The Dark Side of a Human Traits
Alright, let’s get down to psycho business where they probably took 1–5% of the whole horror audience. What I mean by questionable traits are what Martin mentions in his research such as abnormal, sinister, and unpleasant aspects of behavior. These questionable traits are grouped as 4 traits under the Dark Tetrad:
- Machiavellianism: Those who enjoy being in power and most likely will abuse it if they have control over something/someone.
- Narcissism: Where one would be obsessed with himself/him above everyone else.
- Psychopathy: Completely loss of empathy and sympathy, your typical psychopath.
- Sadism: Receiving impulse in the form of joy and fulfillment seeing gore scenes and inflicting pain/torture.
Of course, Martin’s said that just because you like horror movies doesn’t mean that you have these 4 horrible dark traits inside of you since the research regarding this topic is limited and still questionable — just think of it as a reminder that someone out there, might actually have 4 of this traits.
So be careful in your everyday life and have a great Halloween everyone!
